326 Biographical Memoir of [Mav, 



contribute, in however slight a degree, to perpetuate the memory 

 of the talents and virtues of the deceased.* 



John Cranch was born at Exeter, in the same year with Prof. 

 Smith, 1785 ; his parents were in an inferior rank of life, and he 

 had the misfortune to lose his father when only eight years old, 

 so that his mother, being unable to provide for all her family, 

 was obliged to resign her son to the care of an uncle, who lived 

 at Kingsbridge. In this situation he passed six years, during 

 which time his education appears to have been very little attended 

 to, when his uncle, who is described as having been extremely 

 penurious, apprenticed him to a shoemaker. Notwithstanding 

 the extreme disadvantages of his situation, and the very scanty 

 means (if improvement, which he must have enjoyed, his natural 

 genius soon began to display itself; and in the little leisure 

 which was allowed him, and by the imperfect aid of the few 

 books to which he had access, he drew up correct and classical 

 descriptions of all the insects which he could procure in the 

 neighbourhood of his residence. By his own unaided exertions 

 he even acquired a knowledge of the Latin and French languages, 

 so that he was able to understand the descriptions of the zoolo- 

 gical writers which were written in them, and to employ them 

 himself in the description of the objects of natural history. Nor 

 was his attention confined to this study ; he seems to have 

 grasped at every kind of knowledge, how much so ever it might 

 appear, at first view, beyond his reach, and was only excited to 

 greater exertions by the difficulties which surrounded him on 

 every side. 



At the conclusion of his apprenticeship he went to London, as 

 it appears, with an idea, although probably vague and undefined, 



* The herbarium, formed by Prof. Smith, from the banks of the Zaire, upon its 

 arrival in England, was placed at the disposal of Sir Joseph Banks, and arranged 

 under his directiou ; aB interesling and scientific account of its contents is pub. 

 lished as an appendix to Capt. Tuckey's narrative, drawn up by Mr. Robert 

 Brown. With respect to the value of the collection, Mr. Brown informs us, that 

 it contains more than 600 species; Adanson, who spent nearly four years on the 

 banks of the river Senegal, does not appear to have collected above this number of 

 plants; Mr. Smeathman, who resided more than two years at Sierra Leone, col- 

 lected about 450 ; Mr. William Brass collected 250 species in the neighbourhood 

 of Cape Coast; aDd Prof. Afzelius, who resided several years at Sierra Leone, 

 formed a collodion of 1,200 species. From these facts, and from the coincidence 

 which there is between the proportions of the different kinds of plants in this her- 

 barium and in Smeathman's, Mr. Brown conceives that it may be regarded as 

 exhibiting a fair specimen of the botany of the district which Smith had an op- 

 portunity of examining. 



Of the species in this herbarium, 250 are absolutely new; nearly an equal num- 

 ber exist also in different parts of the west coast of equinoctial Africa, and not in 

 other countries, of which, however, the greater part are yet unpublished, and about 

 70 are common to other intra-iropical regions. Of unpublished genera there are 

 S2 in the collection, 12 of which are absolutely new, and three, although observed 

 in other parts of this coast of equinoctial Africa, had not been found before in a 

 state sufficiently perfect to ascertain their structure; 10 belong to different parts 

 of the same line of coast, and 7 are common to other countries. No natural order, 

 absolutely new, exists in the herbarium, nor has any family been found peculiar to 

 equinoctial Africa. 



